Russia confirmed 16,319 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, bringing its official number of cases to 1,431,635 and breaking its record for new infections.
This is at least the fourth record one-day increase in Russia in the past seven days. For the first time since the start of the pandemic, Russia confirmed more than 100,000 Covid-19 cases within a single week from Oct. 12-18.
Russia’s coronavirus information center reported 269 new Covid-19 fatalities Tuesday, bringing the official death toll to 24,635.
The surge in new infections comes as authorities continue to rule out a return to strict restrictions to slow the spread of the virus. Authorities introduced unpopular lockdown measures in spring, when Russia saw fewer than 10,000 daily Covid-19 cases on average.
Moscow, the epicenter of Russia’s coronavirus outbreak, confirmed 4,999 new cases and 1,245 hospitalizations.
Senior Russian healthcare professionals say they expect the country’s number of daily Covid-19 infections to peak at 20,000 before stabilizing within the next two weeks.